NORTH LIBERTY — Throughout the last year, North Liberty residents were asked what they want the city to look like two decades from now.
Growing local businesses, increasing affordable housing and expanding access to recreational areas were among some of the community initiatives important to residents.
Resident ideas and feedback were used to help create a shared vision for the city through the 2022 comprehensive plan Connected to Tomorrow, which will serve as a foundational document guiding city decisions.
A draft of the 116-page comprehensive plan was released in January, and it is anticipated to head before the North Liberty City Council later this month. The last time the city updated its comprehensive plan was in 2013.
The plan includes guiding principles for land use, as well as a vision for transportation, the environment, belonging, housing, economic growth and other related areas.
North Liberty has grown 53 percent over the last decade — from 13,374 in 2010 to 20,479 residents in 2020, according to U.S. Census numbers. By 2040, the city’s population could double based on population forecasts included in the comprehensive plan.
The Gazette talked with the city’s communications director Nick Bergus and planning director Ryan Rusnak, as well as Charlie Cowell, an urban planner with RDG Planning and Design.
Q: What is a comprehensive plan?
A: A comprehensive plan is a vision for the city’s future. It is a guide for development policy, gives context for making use decisions and is a tool that can be used by elected officials, city staff and residents to inform what an area of the city might become in the future.
“The one thing that I think sometimes gets lost is it's not a strategic plan of here's what we're doing, and we're doing it this way,” Rusnak said. “It's more of this broad plan that gives directions for us to move.”
Bergus said a comprehensive plan can help residents set expectations.
“In a fast growing community like ours, when you buy a new home and you look out your back window and see farm fields, this helps inform what might that be,” Bergus said. “What kind of neighborhood am I moving into and what can I expect to develop around it.”
Q: Why was it important to have a robust community engagement process and what did that process look like?
A: There were various ways residents could get involved and submit their feedback throughout 2022. There was an online mapping tool, online survey, community round tables, design workshops, focus groups and other activities.
“We started from the very beginning knowing that (community engagement) was an important part of the plan,” Bergus said. “ … Ryan and his team spent time out at our events starting in the cold of Beat the Bitter, talking to residents about things they were excited about, things they're interested in. Charlie and his team had a bunch of focus groups with different stakeholders, including kids at the high school, small business owners, some of our large employers, folks who do development here in North Liberty.”
“We made sure we had a diverse group of folks there with a diverse group of perspectives to bring to the table to sort of help make sure that we were asking the questions we needed to ask.”
A part of the community engagement process that stood out to Rusnak was meeting with the high school students and talking with them about their priorities and what would entice them to stay in the community.
“It was just really cool to hear younger kids be more open,” Rusnak said. “Equity and the environment and things like that were such high priorities for them. It's just really encouraging to hear those things from younger voices because sometimes you fear that these plans are just informed by people that show up.”
Q: It could be challenging to think 10, 20 years into the future. How do you help residents think that far ahead?
A: “Comprehensive Planning is the hardest for people to really wrap their head around because it's not a concrete site or a project necessarily. It's much more broader than that. So, often, what we do as a tactic is to get people to understand long term is we pick out a project in the community that's already built,” Cowell explained.
“For example, Centennial Park. We can pull plans from years ago when that was just a pipe dream, and show this is what we did.”
Centennial Park was an idea that was put on paper, evolved over time and now the city is getting grants to do specific projects, Cowell said. It was an idea that originated from a long-term plan.
“We challenge people to think about those types of things even if it doesn't seem feasible today or doesn't seem maybe as realistic on paper. … Ten years from now it can certainly evolve into something that is a great asset and value to the community.”
Q: What else stood out to you during this process?
A: “North Liberty is rather unique in a lot of aspects from other communities in Iowa and in the area because it is growing so quickly,” Cowell said. “It is near Iowa City and the university and then also near Cedar Rapids. It's this gathering place of all these different people that work in the area, families in particular.
“We heard loud and clear right from the very beginning how important equity and diversity and inclusion was and is in the community,” Cowell said. “That goes welcoming people from different income levels, making sure they have options to live in North Liberty if they choose, as well as diversity and demographics as well. That was right off the bat.“
Rusnak added that background data and census information was interesting.
“Diving into the census data of how we've grown was really interesting to me,” Rusnak said. “The one that jumped out at me was North Liberty has more workers commuting into North Liberty for work than out. For the longest time, we've had this I don't know if stigma is the right word, but that we are a bedroom community and everybody lives here and they drive out of town for work, and we're seeing that shift.”
Q: The comprehensive plan says this is a flexible, dynamic document that should be reviewed and updated. Can you talk more about that?
A: While the city can’t predict the future, it can anticipate scenarios as things change or evolve over time, Cowell said.
“We can set the city, staff and the community up to respond appropriately based on the overall vision of where they want to go,” Cowell said. “That's the constant in the plan is the overall vision. Now five, 10 years down the line, that vision could change, and then a new process might be warranted. But the plan sets up the tools to meet the overall vision based on the changing future that we don't know.”
Rusnak added, “As the community desires change, as things in the economy change, as things shift, we should be looking to that comprehensive plan to shift as well.”
Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com
Plans for North Liberty are discussed during a Connected to Tomorrow design workshop in April 2022. Charlie Cowell (right) is an urban planner with RDG Planning and Design. (City of North Liberty)
North Liberty’s future plans are discussed during a Connected to Tomorrow design workshop in April 2022. Ryan Rusnak (left) is the city of North Liberty's planning director. (City of North Liberty)
North Liberty’s future is discussed at a Connected to Tomorrow design workshop in April 2022. (City of North Liberty)
